Prompt: The Box — The high pitched chink of metal on rock pierced the air. Again. Again. Then, on one especially loud strike, a ray of lamp light flooded the hidden nook. A few more strikes in the same place and the brick crumbled open to a hole wide enough for James to see inside. James lifted his lantern for more light and peered through the hole. “Hang on,” he said. “I...
Prompt: Loyalty — “Borrrruuuungg!” the horns bellowed. “Borrrruuuungg!, Borrrruuuungg!” The trembling air opens my eyes and steals me from the realm of dreamers. No, not the horns, something else, rough and wet against my forehead, then my nose. I cough. “Ack! Enough King Edward, enough!” I push the giant dog’s brown snout away from my face. King...
And I will persevere as our common
Character demands. There is no work here
Or anywhere. My neighbors are desperate.
By the authority of Big Money
We are disenfranchised and exploited
By a democracy simulation.
But our voices are loud and connected
And change is only certain for us now.
So let us secretly rejoice for you
Prompt: Describe a scene in nature. — I opened my eyes to a woven canopy of black branches and bright yellow leaves. The sun sparkled through the boughs as the Autumn air passed through the old walnut tree. I rubbed my eyes with my fists and stretched my toes out straight and looked around the field. The grass was a brown and green bowl with forests at its rim, but there were no trees...
Prompt: Fear — “Mm, mm, mm, good vibrations!” I sang. I gripped the steering wheel with both hands and swayed my head side to side. My wife, Marlene, sat in the passenger seat, clapping and stomping her foot against the floorboard. “Sing it honey!” she said. My boy Mike sighed from the back seat. He looked miserable in the toddler chair that he claimed not to need. “Quiet!” he said with his...
Hello you. Here is a new nonfiction prompt I got from one of my books. I gave myself a good half an hour for this prompt. — Prompt: My strongest memory. — My strongest memory is a split between two very different situations. The first memory is of the night my brother came into my work and told me that my parents had been in an accident. While that was by far the most impactful memory...
Prompt: Thankful. — “So how are we going to do it,” Eric said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in anticipation for the feast laid out before him. “Should we just go round the table or what?” “Yeah,” Stacy squeaked, “but we need to start with Grandma!” “Yes,” little Sarah said. “Grandma is the oldest.”...
Hello y’all, here is a fun prompt for Thursday evening. — Prompt: If you could live anywhere … — “And how about you Ron,” Fred said, “where would you go if you could?” Fred and the other mechanics finished their laughs and drew on their cigarettes. They all looked at Ron, sitting on the blue oil can across from them. “I’m sorry,”...
Here is a response I wrote to a prompt I got here in San Francisco. — Prompt: Write a dialogue scene between two co-workers in a cafe. — “Thank you for meeting me here,” Anna said, watching Beth drop hard into the chair across from her with a sigh and begin to rifle through her laptop bag. “Mm,” Beth said, not looking away from the search. She produced a small black cellphone...